Friday, April 27, 2012

I cannot express to you how flipping excited I have been about this project! I finished it this Tuesday and it's been killing me not to show you! Seriously, I may have given myself an ulcer!

When Jane first asked me to do a piece on sprucing up a fleamarket find, I immediately thought of junk. Not that you can't find some amazing finds at flea markets, but I thought of all the "junk" pieces people find and turn into cool pieces of art.

So here is my interpretation of fleamarket finds for the Spring Into Spring party!

I got a pair of pallets from my Mom when she had some work done on her house. As usual, they sat in my garage for a few months before I finally decided what to make with them.

This little flower bed on the front of our house has been an eyesore to me:

It's not really terrible, but the flowers in the back didn't get as tall and wide as we had hoped, so we had to stare at this HUGE, blank, cement wall. Blech!

So I decided to use this pallet to spruce the area up!

This is the pallet I used to make my planter. This is the view from the back. Keep in mind all pallets are a little different, so you might have to make adjustments if you make your own.

I attacked the pallet kinda spur of the moment, so I didn't get any action shots. Instead I've used my fancy paint thing to show you what to do.

Before you begin, PUT ON GLOVES! I'm finding new blue splinters every day!

When placed horizontally the pallet is too tall for my space. So I cut off part of the top to shorten it. I used my jigsaw and cut where the arrows are.

The piece I cut off looked like this. There was a single, larger board on the back and two smaller boards on the front. Again, I used my jigsaw and cut where you see the red lines. This reduced the large back piece into three small boards. I then used a hammer and knocked the remaining pieces of wood off the two front boards.

When finished I had the two front pieces, and three smaller back pieces.

I just used a hammer and some nails to attach the three smaller pieces under the top board on the back as seen in the picture above. This makes the three upper areas like boxes so I can actually plant something.

I then took one of the front pieces and nailed it to the bottom of the pallet. Again, this creates three lower boxes so I can plant.

I used a custom mix of paint and did a sort of dry brush. I didn't sand or seal the paint because I want it to naturally chip off.

Now you're ready to put in plastic.

I cut up a large trash bag and put a piece in each compartment. I then added a little bit of potting soil and trimmed the front of the garbage bag to be flush with the front edge. I folded the back of the garbage bag over itself so it would be flush with the soil.

Now you plant your beauties!

The green plants are sweet potato vines. I've been dying to plant some of these! They cost $4 for a container of two. I love how the green looks with the blue!

I have no idea what the other flowers are, but they're a trailing annual. I bought two six packs for $2 a pack. Eventually they'll be spilling over the sides!

I am so stinking in love with this thing! It really brightens up this flower bed and breaks up the wall!

Monday, April 23, 2012

I know I've mentioned it a few times, but I just wanted to remind you one more time about the party going on here this Friday!

This Friday I'll be wrapping up the Spring into Spring party put together by Jane from Adventures in Dinner!

You can head over to her blog for links to all the parties that have already started!

As you can see, my party is about Fleamarket finds, or just sprucing up any old 'junk!' There will be a linky party on my post this Friday so feel free to link up some of your junk transformations!!

Hope to see you there!

Now - for the catching up part!

Over a month ago I was given the versatile blogger award from Bringing Beauty and I'm just now thanking them! Thanks ladies!! They host a linky party every Monday and they have tons of great ideas to share!

As I've mentioned before, I always cheat and just do the question part - here ya go!

1. Can you juggle?

Haha - no. No I cannot.

2. If you had to leave your home quickly and couldn't go
back, what are 3 things you'd take (aside from people/pets)?

My baby blanket which is in almost pristine condition even though I carried it everywhere with me when I was little, my computer which has a bazillion photos on it (including my wedding photos), and whatever treasure the hubby wants.

3. How do you
typically spend a Sunday?

It varies with my mood. Hubby works the third shift, so sometimes I sleep in really late with him. Other Sundays, like yesterday, I go on a project frenzy and work all day trying to finish as much as I can! Once the weather warms up the hubby and I will start fishing again!

4. What actor would you want to portray you in a
movie?

I really like Reese Witherspoon. And hey, she's from Tennessee too!

5. Have you ever had stitches? Where and why?

Three times - the first time I cut a deep gash into the inside of my right, lower thigh with a broken glass bottle. I was only six and took about that many nurses to hold me down. Afterwards I looked at the Doctor and said "Is that it?" Ha - what a brat.

The second time I tripped while trying to take a sip out of my friend's soda without touching my lips to it and sliced open my knee.

Third time I got bit by a dog at work.

6. Do you have a
nickname?

Not anymore - I had a few random ones in highschool. Now I'm just plain old Katie.

Yeah, I should probably ride the short bus.

7. What is your favorite word?

How bout a word I use frequently. That would be "really?!" I use that a lot when driving. I may or may not have serious road rage.

8. Sweet or sour? Which do you
prefer?

Sweet right now!

9. What are three yellow things near you right now?

Package of white cheddar goldfish, package of peanut butter crackers, and that's actually it. Yeah, I keep it healthy up in here!

10. What's
your cocktail/drink of choice?

If I'm having beer I like Heineken. If I'm feeling girly I have Malibu coconut rum with pineapple juice and grenadine. You can thank me later.

11. Why do you blog?

Like many I got started just to have a place to put up my projects. But now I feed off of the drive and creativity from everyone. It's a great creative outlet, a way for me to keep sane. I've also met some amazing folks!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

OH MY GOSH! How flipping cute are these things! Seriously, I could eat them up (although my stomach would not thank me, so I won't).

I have been wanting to make myself some adorable wood buttons for a LONG time, and when my father in law decided to uproot some of his plants I begged and pleaded with him (ok, I just asked him) to hold them for me.

He just kind of looked at me when I said I wanted to make buttons with them. I smiled, and he saved me a plant!

Here is my victim:

This picture was taken after I brutally attacked it with my jigsaw and threw it in the woods like spoiled meat.

When I tell this story I make it seem like I got my plant and then got to work on it immediately. Ha. Umm, it may or may not have sat at the corner of our driveway for about three months, then sat under our porch for another month until the hubby threatened to throw it away. I just wanted to make sure the wood was nice and dry! ;)

I finally attacked it this weekend at the same time I attacked my pallet. Guess I was in a violent mood!

I took my jigsaw to it and cut off the branches to make them easier to work with.

It's probably a good idea to wear some sort of protective eyewear so dirt and debri don't fly into your eyes. Not that I didn't or anything.

Once the pieces were more manageable I held onto them with a furniture clamp and cut away. I squealed with delight as each new piece fell to the ground!

I gave them a light sanding and got ready to drill holes. Here they are pre-drill.

I grabbed our drill and used the 1/16 drill bit to make the holes. I put the wood pieces on top of an old corkboard I paint on so it wouldn't matter if I drilled through it. Worked perfect. About five minutes later I had these:

Freaking - adorable - wood- buttons!

I chose to not put any poly on mine. Partly due to laziness, but mostly because I love the natural wood look.